Active grill shudders won’t allow the badge 
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X7 grill is manageable because the vehicle is huge. 7 series is downright awful. That being said if I can hack a 2020 7 next year I’d take it lol.
Hell no, if anything black wheels need to be easier to option. Maybe not black on back, but contrasting colors usually look great.
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When the 4th gen TL came out, it was roundly criticized and almost totally ignored by the enthusiast crowd due to the beak. I was one of them; I detested the thing every time I saw one on the road for years. Then I drove the 6MT SH-AWD version and bought one. What a great car that was, even though the front end was pretty hideous. I came to really appreciate the risks they took with that design at the time, and how much physical presence and uniqueness the car had.
Then crap like this started coming out…
All of a sudden, the 4gen TL is a paragon of clean, restrained design. WTF.
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I don’t really understand the theory.
Lexus sales are down and people STILL complain about the styling 5 years after they debuted it. Everyone hates the Silverado and sales are in the toilet. I have seen one single Avalon on the road.
This kind of design language does not appeal to consumers so it makes zero sense that BMW thought they could really turn it around and convince people that no, actually, we wrong all along.
I’m not one of them, but lots of people like the 300, and I can see why: American full-sizer, with an available V8, AWD, and a modicum of luxury-esque features. That appeals to a bigger swath then Impala-type stuff, IMO.
Again, I’m not one of them, but they’re out there.
I appreciate the efforts to A) provide brand identity/cohesiveness and B) make the vehicle look unique, but Toyota/Lexus already had tons of A and none of their buyers cared about B. BMW had both A and B. GM is just GM…
The 7 series case is particularly baffling to me. Why destroy an otherwise clean design with a single awful element? The E65 was a total and complete train wreck from front to back - the bangle butt just became the most hated element. The new 7 is a gorgeous vehicle but the grille is 180% too large. There was just absolutely no reason to do that IMO.
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Let’s not forget this atrocity.
I didn’t pause for 5 seconds to consider an A8.
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Ohmigod, that’s literally one of the funniest things I’ve seen in years!!!
This was my understanding, as well. Porsche (several yrs ago) specifically said they wouldn’t support Android Auto b/c it didn’t understand why Google needed access to the engine temperature…
Someone on the MB World forum said (a few yrs ago) that most luxury makes (incl Cadillac) were targeting the Chinese market and that Americans needed to get used to the idea that their preferences weren’t going to be influencing design decisions in the future as much as they were today (then)…
My understanding was that sales of the 7-series actually increased after the Bangle’d design became available.
I assume Lexus sales are down b/c they don’t lease particularly well and b/c no one in the luxury market gives a sh*t about reliability since everyone leases…
As far as the big grille thing goes, I blame Audi. I think it was the first brand to introduce a grille that threatened to swallow the whole car…
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Yeah. The time Audi ripped off a Hyundai grille instead of the other way around…
Ironically BMW Digital Key only works on Android. So to get the most out of your BMW, you need to carry both types of phone.
That’s hilarious…
The le-car?
Leave it to the Germans to make things unnecessarily complicated. Ugh.
You didn’t go to Russia to see it, did you?
So is the E65 compared to the new 7
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